


Subterranean

by pomegrenadier



Series: Structural Integrity [25]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-02
Updated: 2017-04-02
Packaged: 2018-10-14 04:51:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 579
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10529310
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pomegrenadier/pseuds/pomegrenadier
Summary: Somminick Timmns has doubts. Jaesa does not.





	

**Author's Note:**

> aka Master Timmns is a good noodle and one of the few Jedi Masters who doesn't completely suck \o/

**o.O.o**

"If I may, Jaesa . . . Why do you remain with the Empire, if you're not a Sith?" Somminick asks, keeping his voice low. For all the good that'll do; Straik is only a few paces ahead of them as they pick their way out of Darth Ekkage's cell. Now her tomb. But even if this conversation can't be private, it will tell him something about Jaesa's situation.  
  
"Because this is where I want to be," Jaesa says simply.  
  
"You have to understand, given the circumstances surrounding your . . . defection, it's difficult to take anything at face value."  
  
"I assure you, Master Timmns," she says, sounding amused, "I made this choice of my own free will, and I would do it again in a heartbeat."  
  
Somminick hesitates, then says, "Nomen Karr implied you were manipulated."  
  
She laughs, and it's neither bitter nor cruel, but still dismissive. It reminds him of nothing so much as a Jedi Master presented with a particularly implausible excuse for a youngling's latest mishap. "Did he, now? I'm glad he's gained at least that much self-awareness."  
  
Self— _what_? But that would mean—  
  
"You're saying that he—?" Somminick can't believe it. Nomen was a bit of a maverick, but he would never . . . he _wouldn't._  
  
Except—Somminick remembers the cold, twisting horror of seeing his friend again, corrupted, broken. He remembers the darkness he sensed in Nomen, wonders just how much remained within after his time undercover. Is that what drove him to his madness? Walking into the shadows to serve the Light, only to become infected by them?  
  
But then there's Straik, striding a few meters ahead, the Force tangled around him. Straik, who is courteous and witty and cruel, who toyed with Ekkage in her final moments and _smiled_ , who keeps his word but shows no mercy.  
  
"Nomen Karr used me to further his vendetta against Darth Baras. Baras used Evren to further his vendetta against Karr. And when we both appealed to Karr for help, he betrayed us. In the end, my choice was clear."  
  
Somminick wants to reject the very idea that Nomen would betray his own apprentice. He wants to believe that Jaesa is merely confused, misguided; to blame her defection and Nomen's fall on Straik. It would be easier that way. He could return to Tython with a story the Council would accept without question. They would mourn the loss of such a promising ( _valuable_ ) Padawan, and the next time Jaesa encountered a Jedi, they would offer her a choice to redeem herself or be _made_ to redeem herself. He's seen it happen.  
  
It would be easier. But it wouldn't be right. It wouldn't be true.  
  
He looks at Jaesa, and she returns his gaze, level and calm. He can sense no darkness in her, at least. Only clarity. Conviction. It goes against everything he's ever thought he knew about the Force, about Jedi and Sith alike—and yet the fact remains that Jaesa is no more fallen than Somminick himself.  
  
And then she says, "Tell me, Master Timmns, do you trust me to know my own mind and my own desires? Or do you, like Nomen Karr, believe you know me better than I know myself?"  
  
"Choose your words carefully, Jedi,'" Straik purrs, without breaking stride.  
  
Somminick still does not entirely trust the Sith. But he doesn't have to. He can worry about Jaesa without becoming another Nomen Karr.  
  
"I believe in you, Jaesa," he says simply.

**o.O.o**


End file.
